Update: Thousands of us have written to our MPs. You can share what your MP replied, and see what other 38 Degrees members have recieved back from their MPs here: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/nhs-what-your-mp-said

We’ve just sent out an email about Andrew Lansley’s damaging plans for the NHS. David Cameron & Nick Clegg are having crunch meetings soon to discuss the future of our health service. We have to act now: if we all tell our MPs that we demand a rethink of the plans, it will send a powerful message to Lansley, Cameron and Clegg. Can you add your voice? Use this link to write to your MP: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/NHS-email-MP

When you get a reply from your MP, please upload it here: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/nhs-what-your-mp-said. You can also view responses from other 38 Degrees members’ MPs.

Here’s the text of the email we just sent out:

Dear friend,

Is it starting to work? Yesterday’s Times newspaper reported that Cameron and Clegg are starting to worry about the huge public opposition to the NHS plans. It’s a clear sign that public pressure can save the NHS.

The Times said that David Cameron and Nick Clegg will sit down “in the next week or two” to “plan the way ahead”. [1] That means the future of the NHS is on a knife edge. They could decide to carry on forcing the changes through. Or they could decide to stop. We need to increase our pressure now, before these critical meetings.

If MPs receive a flood of emails ahead of the crunch meetings, it could tip the balance and persuade the government to back off. Can you email your MP now?

Take two minutes to tell your MP to take our message to Cameron and Clegg: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/NHS-email-MP

We need Clegg and Cameron to be hearing from hundreds of MPs all giving them the same message: “my voters don’t want these changes to the NHS”. They’ll be left in no doubt about how many of us don’t want the plans to go ahead.

250,000 of us have already signed the save the NHS petition. We know that we’re getting people’s attention. But now we need to make sure that every MP sees just how many of their own voters are against these dangerous plans for the NHS.

Tell your MP we don’t want the government to ruin the NHS: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/NHS-email-MP

So many different groups are worried about Andrew Lansley’s plans for the NHS. Doctors, nurses, patient groups, health charities, academics, unions, and even a growing number of Lib Dem and Conservative politicians. Now we need to tell every MP that it’s time for the government to start listening.

We know that shining a spotlight on MPs can transform things. When thousands of us emailed our MPs about the forests sell-off vote, their support for the plan started to melt away. Just last week, we heard that the government had changed its mind about protecting victims of human trafficking, after thousands of 38 Degrees members got their MPs to raise their concerns. Now, let’s do the same for the NHS by emailing our MPs ahead of this key meeting.

Turn up the heat on your MP, send them an email and ask them to take our message to Cameron and Clegg: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/NHS-email-MP

Thanks for being involved,
Johnny, Hannah, David and the 38 Degrees team

PS: Over the last couple of weeks, local 38 Degrees members delivered copies of our petition – nearly a quarter of a million strong – to key MPs on the health committee. But now we need to make sure every MP hears our message and passes it on to Cameron and Clegg. So please email yours now: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/NHS-email-MP

NOTES:
[1] You can read about the Times article here: http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/03/lansley-reforms-nhs-cameron. The article itself is behind the Times paywall, here: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/health/news/article2967342.ece

On Friday 15 October, Leeds 38 Degrees Volunteer Stephen, and Eleanor from the London office headed to the Department for Transport to hand in our petition to Philip Hammond and Danny Alexander, backing the Leeds Trolleybus.

Leeds 38 Degrees member Stephen with the petition outside DfT

Almost 1,000 of us have now signed the petition – pushing the government to commit funding for the trolleybus. 100s of us have described how the trolleybus would reduce congestion, generate new jobs and boost the economy, improve local air quality – and just make getting around easier.

This has been combined with over 60 letters to Leeds MPs backing the trolleybus. We hope that these letters and the petition give both ministers some serious food for thought.

It looks like we should get a decision on whether or not the trolleybus will go ahead on the 20^th, but the Spending Review may not go down to that level of detail….we may have to wait a little longer.

Health Minister Andrew Lansley: have private healthcare lobbyists been helping him write the NHS Whitepaper?

38 degrees teamed up with Spinwatch last year to demand tougher rules on lobbying – a hugely successful campaign which had a huge breakthrough back in May when government agreed to tougher rules to ban secret lobbying. They’re yet to implement these – it is likely we’ll need to put further pressure on next year.

Now Spinwatch have started looking into the links between the health minister, Andrew Lansley, and private health companies who would stand to gain from his proposals to change the NHS.

Tens of thousands of 38 Degrees members emailed their MPs after the Conservative Minister, Jeremy Hunt, launched an attack on the BBC by announcing plans to cut the licence fee in 2012.

38 Degrees members have been adding their MPs’ replies to this page on our website, and we’ve now got replies from most MPs. Quite a few MPs have also sent their constituents a reply they received from the Culture Minister, Ed Vaizey, after writing to him about the BBC.

Here’s the letter the Minister, Ed Vaizey has been sending to MPs:

George Osborne

We’ve got just a few days to convince George Osborne not to go back on his plan to increase Capital Gains Tax, so that Britain’s wealthiest people don’t end up paying less tax than everyone else. Increasing the tax in line with income tax levels formed part of the coalition agreement between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

But now it looks like the government is wavering under pressure from Conservative MPs and the right-wing media. Baroness Noakes, a Tory Peer, told the chancellor that a rise in Capital Gains Tax has “no popular support”. We’re working with One Society to build  petition with thousands of our names, to convince George Osborne that he’s wrong and give him the final push he needs to commit to the tax in his Emergency Budget. Sign the petition here http://www.38degrees.org.uk/capital-gains-tax

David Cameron has warned that Britain’s “whole way of life” will be disrupted for decades by “painful” cuts. Spending cuts are always worst for the poorest and most vulnerable people. But if the richest people continue to avoid paying a proper share of taxes, it’s a double injustice. Now is the right time to make sure that everyone shares the burden.

Click here to sign the petition, to help make our tax system fairer:  and ask George Osborne to stand firm on the promise to bring Capital Gains Tax in line with income tax.

The new government wants to make it easier for schools to become academies. Tell your MP to make sure that new rules don’t mean local communities have no voice when it comes to turning schools into academies

Academies work differently to other schools. They aren’t overseen by local councils and their sponsors can include big businesses, religious organisations, charities or universities, who get a say on which subjects are taught, and how. Sponsors also get everything the school owns, including its land and buildings. Academy governors aren’t elected and once a school becomes an Academy, there is no guaranteed way to go back.

These are big changes and the pupils, parents and teachers at a school should get a chance to have a say on whether their school decides to become an Academy. At the moment, the government is proposing new rules in the Academies Act, which would mean that governors at a school could make the decision without asking anyone else involved with the school. Current plans would mean the people whose lives will be most affected by their school changing into an academy wouldn’t have any way to make their voices heard.

Write to your MP in 2 minutes, telling them to support a better Academies Bill with proper consultation with the whole school community and ask them to sign the Early Day Motion.

Following the politicisation and misrepresentation of the NHS in the wake of Barack Obama’s proposals for a public healthcare system in the US, more than 2,200 of us have rallied to mark our support for the British healthcare system.

Last week we discovered that a group of right-wing detractors had put out a request calling for NHS “horror stories”. Since then more than 1,300 of us have obliged – sharing our personal experiences of the National Health Service. But we’ve got a feeling they won’t be getting what they hoped for. Instead, we offer them hundreds of stories that hold a mirror to the reality as we see it: a healthcare system that, while not perfect, offers comprehensive and compassionate treatment, accessible to all members of society, and free at the point of delivery. It’s also clear that many of us are disquieted by the idea of a health system administered by private companies, and one that would inevitably exclude the poorest in society and overshadow all but the richest.

As well as showing solidarity with the NHS, we’d hate for the American public to be misled – especially when it comes to deciding the future of their own healthcare system. So we’re telling them how it is. We’ve teamed up with Mother Jones, a leading US website with over 2 million readers, to share our personal stories. When we sent them over, here’s what Mother Jones publisher Jay Harris had to say:

“I can’t tell you how grateful we are to everyone from 38 Degrees for providing Americans what our health care “debate” has singularly been lacking: the illumination of truth about the successes of NHS. Your stories are incredibly moving and overwhelmingly show how much you value a modern, equitable and universal national system. It is extremely valuable to know that, while NHS isn’t a nirvana, neither is it the communist meat mill some would have us believe! Here in the US we need to hear about real experiences, without the hysterical exaggeration served up by the right and private interests. Thank you, 38 Degrees, for all you do.”

And here are just few of the stories we shared:

“My grandson, aged 5, would have died were it not for the immediate and personal analysis and intervention by an NHS doctor at 4am on a dreary winter’s morning. Our NHS has faults – just like any major organisation – but the least of those faults is that it is always there for us and free at point of delivery. Make your own mind up America, based on what YOU want out of your lives! I am simply most grateful that my family and I can enjoy the rest of our grandson’s life. Thank you NHS.” – Peter, Shrewsbury

“As a baby, I needed medicine that cost 3 pounds a week. My father earned 2 pounds a week in 1947. The then new NHS provided the medicine without charge. I am now a grandfather. Any questions?” - Michael, Swansea

“Right up until [my father’s] death and for some time afterwards we received first class care. The thought of having to go through the same experience whilst also having to worry about how you will pay for the care is too frightening to think about.” – Andrew, Altrincham

“My friends had a horrific accident in June. They are both still in hospital and have received donor bone grafts, massive blood donations, many operations and will receive any and all the help they need to recover over the coming months and years – FREE of charge, under the National Health Service. Without it, they would both have died the day it happened.” – Helen, Isle of Man

“The NHS saved my life in 1986 when I had a burst appendix. I have private cover through work, but 9 times out of 10 I’d use the NHS instead.” – Andy, Cheltenham

“There is no such thing as an old person left to die in the UK! My mother is 84 and receives the highest standard of treatment, free at the point of contact. The US healthcare lobby are telling lies to cover their inefficient, overpriced butts.” – Keith, Letchworth

“It’s not socialism, it’s called justice.” – Hannah, Ipswich

“There are many things in this country I’m not proud of, but our attitude towards care is something I tend to boast about to my foreign friends. Societies are judged by how they treat their most vulnerable citizens, not by how rich or powerful they are!” – Paul, Brighton